Perfection is an ideology that many of us strive her. Simply, we want to be the best. We want to achieve more, win more awards, be more successful, help more people, and make more money. But maybe we're competing with the wrong people. In a recent article for The Muse, Kat Boogaard points out that it's your personal best that you should try to beat, not anyone else's.

Instead of trying to breeze past everyone around them, marathoners set goals of beating their personal best every time they run. They don’t really concern themselves with who’s ahead of them or behind them. They’re only competing against the clock and their own best time.

This is a mindset you can apply to your own career and life, whether you’re a runner or not. Simply stop obsessing over how successful or accomplished everyone around you is, and focus instead on being the best you can be. Let me tell you, once you’re competing with yourself—and not every single other person around you—life gets a whole lot easier.

The next time you are setting personal goals for yourself, stop thinking about what everyone else is doing and has done and focus on being your best.